Presbyterian Church of the Master
Adult Education
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Professor Nate Feldmeth
Christology: The Theology of Jesus Christ
Background
A. The doctrine of Christ is usually divided into two subsections, the person and the work
of Christ
1.
The “person” has to do both with Christ’s deity and humanity as well as relationship
within the Trinity.
2.
The “work” has to do with the question, why did Christ come to the Earth and die?
This is the work of atonement.
B. Over our four Sundays together we are going to examine these two topic areas in four
time periods.
1.
2.
3.
4.
I.
The Early Church (30-590 A.D.)
The Medieval Church (590-1450
The Protestant Reformation (1450-1600)
The Modern Church ( 1600-Present)
Key Issues in Christology in the Early Church Period (30-590 A.D.)
A. The person of Christ
1. The incarnation and virgin birth of Christ according to the Gospels
2.
3.
Heterodox views regarding the birth and humanity of Christ
a.
The Ebionities – Christ was conceived normally but predestined to be the
Messiah
b.
The Gnostics – Christ only appeared to be human – this view was branded
“Docetism”
The relation Christ had to the Trinity
a.
Early attempts to explain the Trinity
1) Dynamic Monarchianism - God adopted Christ to be his son at baptism
(Adoptionism)
b.
2) Modalistic Monarchianism – God appeared in different modes at
different times in human history (Sabellianism)
Arianism
1) Bishop Alexander of Alexandria stressed that the Logos and God the
Father were of the same substance
2) Arius – a presbyter in Alexandria
3) The Arian view of Christ
c.
The Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.)
-
4.
Christ (the Logos) was created by God
“There was (a time) when Christ was not.”
Christ is of a different substance than the Father
Christ is of the same substance with the Father
Arianism was condemned but it continued in parts of the
Church
The Council of Nicaea was confirmed at the Council of
Constantinople in 381
Questions about whether Christ was fully human
a.
Apollinarianism: Christ had a human body but his human spirit was replaced by
the Logos
- Issue: If he was not completely human could Christ die for
humans and be our savior?
- The church condemned Apollinarianism
b.
Nestorianism: Christ had a human and a divine nature that were joined in the
incarnation but not merged (Christ was a temple in which the Logos dwelt)
-Nestorianism was condemned
-The Church affirmed: Christ has two natures that are united one
with the other
c. Eutychianism: Christ had only one nature, the human nature was absorbed into
the divine, so his natures was not like ours
- Eutychianism was condemned
- The Church affirmed: Christ has two natures, human and divine
that are distinct and each performs its own function
B. The Work of Christ – How was atonement accomplished?
1. The ransom to Satan theory of atonement—Origen of Alexandria
a. That Jesus Christ made a deal with Satan and willingly traded his life for the lives
of all humanity. Satan accepted the agreement not knowing that he would only
posses Christ’s person for three days
2. The Substitutionary View: Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine and many others
a. Christ paid a debt that we owed to God—a debt that we owe because of our sinful
disobedience in breaking God’s law. In other words, Christ became our substitute,
dying in our place on the cross
3. The Recapitulation theory- Irenaeus